The Associated Press declared that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz successfully defended his seat against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred based on the incumbent’s competitive showing in the state’s large population centers, bolstered by his overwhelming leads in more conservative rural areas across the state.

Sessions dropped out of the race after a first round of voting within the Republican conference. Williams entered the race after the apparent front-runner, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, failed to reach the 217-vote threshold, but later on Tuesday evening and the Texas lawmaker was also out.

Sessions is the longest-serving representative running to become U.S. House Speaker. He previously led the House Republican campaign arm through a record-breaking victory, but he still faces a steep battle to secure the gavel.

Only one Texan, Rep. Pete Sessions, remains in the race for House Speaker. Republicans will hear from the candidates Monday night as they try to fill the job following U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s failure to win a majority.

Arrington and Williams expressed their interest after the House Republican Conference voted in a closed door meeting to drop Jim Jordan as their nominee for speaker. Sessions announced his run shortly after.

The lead prosecutor in the case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter says he is willing to testify publicly this fall.

The Dallas native, former NFL linebacker and civil rights lawyer has not traveled a typical path to Congress.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will be up for reelection next year, now a seasoned senator and established conservative leader. But Democrats are still holding out hope they can repeat the sensation of Beto-mania.

A businessman who once pitched himself as someone who could expose corruption in the Trump Administration over its dealings in Ukraine is facing trial in New York City.

(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)MIAMI – Newly filed lobbying records show Venezuela’s socialist government previously hired a longtime Democratic Party donor for $6 million at the same time it was lobbying to discourage the U.S. from imposing sanctions on the oil-rich nation. Federal prosecutors in Miami are also investigating whether the Republican broke foreign lobbying rules. Payments came from a little-known, Delaware-registered subsidiary, PDV USA, which provided shareholder services to PDVSA independent of Citgo's oil operations. “Wiss was engaged to provide PDV USA and its affiliates with legal services only,” she wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. PDV USA said Wiss provided updates on disputes involving PDVSA and advice on immigration, insurance, and cryptocurrency.

In the vote for House speaker, 216 Democrats backed Pelosi, while 209 Republicans voted for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. While there were a handful of Democrats who cast symbolic votes that were not for Pelosi or voted "present," all Texas Democrats backed Pelosi and all Texas Republicans voted for McCarthy. Trump administration officials say over 100 House Republicans will contest the presidential election results on Wednesday, when Congress is scheduled to officially certify Biden's Electoral College victory. One of the most even-tempered Democrats in Congress delivered the starkest criticism of Gohmert: U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Sessions is a former chairman of the House Rules Committee and of the House GOP campaign arm.

Texans will be voting in the middle of a pandemic on Tuesday in a runoff election originally scheduled for May. The wild card: Robert MorrowFor Republicans in Texas, Robert Morrow advancing to the GOP primary runoff for a seat on the State Board of Education was nothing short of frightening. The winner in the GOP runoff Tuesday will face Texas State University English professor Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat, in Novembers general election. When he issued a statewide mask mandate, Abbott excluded churches and people voting in the primary runoff elections. Disclosure: Texas State University and the Texas secretary of state have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.

Texas has become one of the world's virus hot zones and is in far worse shape now than when the runoff was postponed in March. Last week was the deadliest of the pandemic for Texas, and Republican Gov. Abbott did not include polling places in his recent statewide mask order, and unlike many states, Texas has fought efforts to expand mail-in balloting during the pandemic. The Senate runoff is between Air Force veteran MJ Hegar, who narrowly lost a race for a House seat in 2018, and state Sen. Royce West, who if he wins would become Texas' first Black U.S. senator. For now, both remain underdogs against Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran who has a hefty stockpile of campaign dollars.

Since then, he has moved 100 miles south in hopes of a political comeback in a different district. "Renee's opponent in the Republican Runoff Election is Pete Sessions, a former Congressman for more than 20 years ... from DALLAS. "This lack of attention to his constituents shows us what we can expect if Pete Sessions is elected to represent the 17th district," Flores added. Around that time, campaign finance reports showed that Sessions spent campaign funds on criminal defense attorney fees a point of criticism from the Swann campaign. He is the former consultant to Flores, and he worked in a similar role for another Texas Republican: Pete Sessions.

The purpose: to lure Exxon back to Venezuela after a decade's absence and inject much-needed dynamism into the OPEC nation's collapsing oil industry. But Sessions did engage in other mediation efforts in Venezuela over the next 15 months. The earlier email regarding Exxon and his connection to Rivera was not known at the time. The five-sentence message sent to Sessions' personal email address, which starts with the word eagle," is short on specifics. The U.S. Department of State would be your best resource for any information regarding contacts made with Venezuela, a spokesman said.